MEANING
A memorial erected for someone whose remains are buried elsewhere or missing.
Use it for
Missing bodies, unresolved mourning, public commemoration.Make absence material: the monument exists while the person cannot be recovered.
Words that belong together
- war cenotaph
- inscribed cenotaph
- stand before the cenotaph
On the page
The cenotaph bore a date of death the family had never accepted.
Every winter she left flowers at the cenotaph for her brother.
No bones lay beneath the marble cenotaph, only the foundations of an older wall.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- cenotaph
Usage notes
Primary category: gothic. The defining feature is absence of the body; not a synonym for an occupied tomb. Plural cenotaphs.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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